Apply for Income Assistance in Nunavut through your community Income Assistance Worker: book an appointment, bring your family's documents, and complete a monthly financial assessment.
Applies in: Nunavut
Contact your community Income Assistance Worker and set up an appointment. Income Assistance in Nunavut is run by Family Services. It is a program of last resort, intended to help Nunavut families and individuals meet their basic needs when they are unable to provide for themselves for various reasons, including disability, illness, low income, or periods of unemployment. There is no online application and no paper form named on the government's program page: the route is a meeting with your community Income Assistance Worker, who completes a monthly financial assessment with you and works out whether you are eligible.
This guide covers process only. It gives no advice on whether you qualify, and it gives no benefit dollar amounts, because the program page publishes none — the amount is worked out at your monthly assessment, so ask your worker for the figure that applies to your household.
Before you can apply to the Income Assistance program, you must have applied to all other programs you may be entitled to, such as employment insurance, various pension programs, workers' compensation, and child maintenance. You must also access all other financial resources you may have available first, such as money in the bank and RRSPs (Registered Retirement Savings Plans). Annual filing of your tax return is also required.
This is the "last resort" rule: Income Assistance is the program you turn to after the other programs and resources have been used. Your Income Assistance Worker will discuss and investigate all available resources you may have access to before determining eligibility, so be ready to talk through what you have already applied for and what you have already used.
Contact your community Income Assistance Worker to set up an appointment. That worker is your point of contact for the whole process: the appointment, the assessment, and the Productive Choice described below.
If you do not know your community worker, contact your Family Services Regional Office:
Family Services' head office in Iqaluit can be reached at 867-975-5200. Call the regional office for your region first — the regions cover different communities, and the regional office can connect you with the worker for your community.
Take the following to your first appointment:
The program page does not list what those other documents are, so ask your worker when you book the appointment what else to bring. Take along anything that shows your income, savings, or other support, since the worker will discuss all available resources with you before deciding eligibility.
At your appointment, you will be required to have a monthly financial assessment completed with your Income Assistance Worker. The worker discusses and investigates all available resources you may have access to before determining eligibility, and benefits are provided on a case-by-case basis to those who meet the program's eligibility requirements.
The assessment is monthly: it is not a one-time check. Keep your documents and records current so each month's assessment can be completed without delay, and file your tax return every year, since annual filing is required.
You will be required to develop a Productive Choice with your Income Assistance Worker to become more self-sufficient. Productive Choices may include upgrading your schooling, training, parenting under certain circumstances, employment, community work, harvesting, or individual mental health or alcohol and drug counselling.
Individuals who have a disability or are over the age of 60 are exempt from engaging in a productive choice. Your worker can tell you which options fit your situation.
The program page publishes no dollar amounts for Income Assistance, so this guide gives none — not a basic allowance, not a shelter amount, and not an incidental allowance. Figures for this program that appear on other websites come from older reports or third-party summaries and were not confirmed on an official page, so they are not carried here. The page also names no application form, no online application route, and no processing timeline, so this guide states none of those. It gives no document list beyond the birth certificate, Social Insurance Number, and health care plan number for every family member plus "other documents," and it states no appeal process, so this guide describes no appeal route. Ask your Income Assistance Worker about all five points before relying on anything you read elsewhere.
Any person 18 years of age and older in financial need who lives in Nunavut may apply. The program is a program of last resort, intended to help Nunavut families and individuals meet their basic needs when they are unable to provide for themselves for various reasons, including disability, illness, low income, or periods of unemployment.
No. The program page names no online application for this program. You apply by contacting your community Income Assistance Worker to set up an appointment, then meeting with that worker in person. If you do not know your community worker, call your Family Services Regional Office: South Qikiqtani 867-975-6580 or 1-855-975-6580, North Qikiqtani 867-473-2607 or 1-800-567-1514, Kivalliq 867-645-5040 or 1-800-953-8516, or Kitikmeot 867-983-4032 or 1-800-661-0845.
Take a copy of every family member's birth certificate, Social Insurance Number, and health care plan number, plus any other documents your Income Assistance Worker asks for. At the appointment, the worker will discuss and investigate all available resources you may have access to before determining eligibility, so take along anything that shows your income, savings, or other support.
A Productive Choice is a plan you develop with your Income Assistance Worker to become more self-sufficient. It may include upgrading your schooling, training, parenting under certain circumstances, employment, community work, harvesting, or individual mental health or alcohol and drug counselling. People who have a disability or are over the age of 60 are exempt from engaging in a productive choice.
Yes. Before you can apply, you must have applied to all other programs you may be entitled to, such as employment insurance, various pension programs, workers' compensation, and child maintenance. You must also access all other financial resources you may have available first, such as money in the bank and RRSPs. Annual filing of your tax return is also required.
The program page publishes no dollar amounts, so this guide gives none. The amount is worked out in your monthly financial assessment with your Income Assistance Worker, based on your household's needs and resources. Ask your worker what applies to your household, and do not rely on a figure from an older article or another website.